At some point, I sincerely hope that the educational model of placing hundreds of students in a giant concrete building for 6-8 hours a day can finally be abandoned in favor of internet-based and/or hybrid online/traditional schooling models.

From my perspective, many of these capacity issues could easily be alleviated by staggering attendance so as to be online Tues/Thurs and in the schoolhouse Mon/Wed/Fri for various groups of students at a given time, assuming ability on the part of the student. Additionally this might allow teachers to focus on students who need help the most with smaller class sizes.

I realize that federal and state regulatory burdens can make such innovation difficult but at some point enough is enough - this system is simply not scalable as is and results in tremendous waste in busing costs, unnecessary capital accumulation, wasted time for students and teachers, and inflexibility for everyone.

I come from a family of educators, so I understand some of the hardships faced by public school systems...particularly the heavy-handed federal and state regulation. However, at some point we really have to ask if the public school system is stagnating with respect to innovation and simply accepting the status quo without looking in the mirror and scrutinizing the underlying assumptions held about how this system should work on a fundamental level.

Hey Brian - I'm Jayme's roomie. He and I had talked and we decided that it'd probably be best to not comment on all the details publicly just yet out of sensitivity and also due to the legal issues that are surrounding the case. The website moderator didn't remove his comment due to flagging or anything like that - Jayme had requested that they remove it. I know he did appreciate your kind words though!

In any case, it was a crazy event to be sure...very unfortunate. Glad all the kids lived through it, and certainly hope that some lessons can be learned.